George de La Hèle

George de La Hèle (also Georges, Helle, Hele) (1547 – August 27, 1586) was a Franco-Flemish composer of the Renaissance, mainly active in the Habsburg chapels of Spain and the Low Countries. Among his surviving music is a book of eight masses, some for as many as eight voices. While he was a prolific composer during his time in Spain, much of his music was destroyed in 1734 in the burning of the chapel library in Madrid.

La Hèle was born in Antwerp, and received his musical training both there and possibly at Soignies. He spent his teenage years as a choirboy in Madrid, in the chapel of Philip II, then led by Pierre de Manchicourt, another northern composer who spent much of his career in Spain; Manchicourt probably identified the young La Hèle himself on one of his talent-scouting trips to his own homeland. After singing as a choirboy for several years, in the late 1560s La Hèle went to study at the University of Alcalá, and in 1570 returned north, enrolling at the University of Leuven. While his course of study has not been documented, it is presumed he studied not music but theology. He seems not to have achieved the priesthood, but rose high enough in the Church hierarchy to be eligible for benefices.

In the 1570s La Hèle stayed in the Low Countries, working successively as choirmaster at the cathedrals in Mechelen and Tournai, both centers of music-making. These were also productive years: he wrote the eight masses which Antwerp printer Christopher Plantin published in 1578 as Octo missae, La Hèle's most famous (and principal surviving) publication.

In 1580 La Hèle became maestro di capilla of Philip's royal chapel, and by the next year he had gone to Madrid to take the post, as maestro of the capilla flamenca to distinguish from the capilla real. His career there was also successful, with acclaimed performances; he also added considerably to the chapel's repertory, bringing in music by northern composers such as Clemens non Papa, Italians such as Palestrina, and music by native Spaniards such as Francisco Guerrero and Cristóbal de Morales.

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